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Non-banks hunt for funds from depositors

Sajjadur Rahman
Non-bank financial institutions, which are struggling to sustain business growth, have decided to intensify their deposit collection measures to reduce dependence on cosdy bank funds.
As part of the move, many non-banks have set up liability management units in the last few months to mobilise deposits from sources other than banks.
The finance companies are also working to come up with new and diversified products to compete with the banks.
Presently, the non-banks cannot take deposits for less than six months or open current and savings accounts, according to Bangladesh Bank rules.
“We've emphasised on deposit collection from the customers directly to gradually wean ourselves off banks,” said Asad Khan, managing director of Prime Finance.
The NBFIs have set a target to reduce dependence on bank funds to only 20 percent within this year, from around 50 percent now, he said.
Khan has employed 30 employees for his company's unit to expedite fund collection.
Inamur Rahman, managing director of Bangladesh Industrial Finance Company Ltd, also said they have set up a different unit to collect deposits from sources other than banks.
During the recent years, a tight monetary policy of the central bank has radically changed the fund sourcing strategies of the non-banks that fully depended on bank funds five years ago.
The non-banks' sources of funds shrank in 2011 and
2012 when banks themselves were in a shortage of funds.
Many NBFIs had to borrow at more than 18 percent from banks to run their business.
Accordingly, higher costs of funds have eroded their interest margin leading to a fall in profit in 2012.
Also, banks' increasing exposure to leasing business has affected the non-banks' core business, which, according to the industry people, has severely distorted the level-playing field of the NBFI sector.
Amid this changing business pattern, the non-banks have taken new strategies, and IDLC Finance has already shown the way.
Since 2010 IDLC Finance has been diversifying its business, and to achieve the target, the company has invested a lot, including for recruiting 390 fulltime employees and for branding.
“The board and management of the respective companies have to jointly prepare plans to make their business sustainable,'' said Selim RF Hussain, managing director of IDLC Finance.
IDLC has dramatically reduced its dependence on bank funds. Now the company depends almost fully on its own funds collected from depositors. The company has also diversified its products to meet the demand of the corporate and small and medium enterprises.
“We've investedTk 1,000 crore in SMEs in the last five years. We've a target to disburse another Tk 650 crore by this year,” said Hussain.
But it will not be easy for many of these finance companies to collect deposits directly from the market like the IDLC did, as there is a bar.
“We've been requesting the central bank to allow us to collect deposits for three months instead of six,” said Khan of Prime Finance. Khan is also the chairman of Bangladesh Leasing and Finance Companies Association.
The non-banks' products and services range from traditional leasing to term loans, short-term financing to factoring, home and car loans, syndication services, merchant banking, stock brokerage services and securitisation.
But their leasing exposure has significantly been reduced since 2004 when the government imposed tax on depreciation allowance, according to the sector people.